Mwavita Mlasi, in the office of the Executive Committee at Nyarugusu Refugee Camp, uses her position as vice president to help people find solutions to their problems.

NYARUGUSU REFUGEE CAMP, Tanzania, April 3 (UNHCR) – Inside a dark youth centre in the heart of Nyarugusu Refugee Camp, a tall, slim woman rises proudly from her plastic chair and introduces herself. "My name is Mwavita Mlasi," she says loudly in English, "And I am the camp Vice President."

The other women's faces break into smiles as they applaud and cheer on their friend and fellow leader. The two phrases are some of the only English Mwavita knows, but she executes them with precision and conviction.

Mwavita is one of nearly 70,000 refugees, mostly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in Nyarugusu in Tanzania's northwest. Like Mwavita, roughly half the camp's many leaders are women, the result of a UNHCR commitment to encourage refugee women to take control of their lives while in exile.

Fighting in the eastern DRC has displaced about three million people over the last 11 years, both inside and outside the country. But Mwavita fled persecution from a surprising source – her own family.

When she was just 14, the people she believed were her parents threatened to kill her when she refused to marry her own brother. That was when, to her shock, "my mother told me she wasn't my real mother," she says through an interpreter. "I was adopted as a baby because my parents had died." Even though her "brother" turned out not to be a blood relative, she still could not contemplate marrying him.

But that was not the end of the horror for the teenager. Other relatives tried to marry her off to another man to profit from her dowry. "That's why they threatened me. They were angry." Even today, at the age of 47, "this conflict affects my relationship with my family," she says, her voice cracking as she wipes away tears.

Unable to rely on her real family, her community – in DRC and in the camp -- became her home. Mwavita says that's where she learned how to be a good leader. In 2000, Mwavita was first elected to a leadership position in Lugufu Refugee Camp, which has since closed.

She then worked her way up through all levels of camp leadership to the top: "Now, I am the Vice President of Nyarugusu," she says. "As a leader, I always collaborate with people. I call meetings and share information with others. I like it when people work together to solve problems in the community."

Mwavita has represented women for more than a dozen years now, but she admits being a female leader isn't easy. She says cultural practices in her community cause men to view women as inferior, despite more and more women becoming leaders.

Fellow refugees also question her lack of formal education. "When I am in a meeting, even if I contribute a good idea, men tell me, 'What can you tell us? You did not even go to school'." But she does not let the criticism stop her from working to help future generations. "I can help our young girls get an education and become powerful so they don't face what I face now," she says.

Camp President Mateso Jean Pierre Duros says women leaders like Mwavita are a valuable asset. "Sometimes, it isn't comfortable for men leaders or the women to discuss their problems with each other," he says. "Women are more comfortable being heard by other women. So we really need women leaders."

Joyce Mends-Cole, UNHCR's representative in Tanzania, says women like Mwavita, who "have taken the challenges of their difficult lives and used their determination and strength to be examples of leadership" have a great impact on the lives of many.

Now Mwavita is looking to inspire a new generation of leaders. She offers refugee girls this advice:

"Have confidence. I'm a leader because above all I felt that I was capable of being a leader. Also, trust and respect the community. And treat everyone with respect. We're all human beings."

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

As a massive food distribution gets underway in six UNHCR-run camps for tens of thousands of internally displaced Congolese in North Kivu, the UN refugee agency continues to hand out desperately needed shelter and household items.

A four-truck UNHCR convoy carrying 33 tonnes of various aid items, including plastic sheeting, blankets, kitchen sets and jerry cans crossed Wednesday from Rwanda into Goma, the capital of the conflict-hit province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The aid, from regional emergency stockpiles in Tanzania, was scheduled for immediate distribution. The supplies arrived in Goma as the World Food Programme (WFP), with assistance from UNHCR, began distributing food to some 135,000 displaced people in the six camps run by the refugee agency near Goma.

More than 250,000 people have been displaced since the fighting resumed in August in North Kivu. Estimates are that there are now more than 1.3 million displaced people in this province alone.

Posted on 6 November 2008

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

Since 2006, renewed conflict and general insecurity in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo's North Kivu province has forced some 400,000 people to flee their homes – the country's worst displacement crisis since the formal end of the civil war in 2003. In total, there are now some 800,000 people displaced in the province, including those uprooted by previous conflicts.

Hope for the future was raised in January 2008 when the DRC government and rival armed factions signed a peace accord. But the situation remains tense in North Kivu and tens of thousands of people still need help. UNHCR has opened sites for internally displaced people (IDPs) and distributed assistance such as blankets, plastic sheets, soap, jerry cans, firewood and other items to the four camps in the region. Relief items have also been delivered to some of the makeshift sites that have sprung up.

UNHCR staff have been engaged in protection monitoring to identify human rights abuses and other problems faced by IDPs and other populations at risk across North Kivu.

UNHCR's ninemillion campaign aims to provide a healthy and safe learning environment for nine million refugee children by 2010.

Posted on 28 May 2008

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

Displaced in North Kivu: A Life on the Run

Fighting rages on in various parts of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with seemingly no end in sight for hundreds of thousands of Congolese forced to flee violence and instability over the past two years. The ebb and flow of conflict has left many people constantly on the move, while many families have been separated. At least 1 million people are displaced in North Kivu, the hardest hit province. After years of conflict, more than 1,000 people still die every day - mostly of hunger and treatable diseases. In some areas, two out of three women have been raped. Abductions persist and children are forcefully recruited to fight. Outbreaks of cholera and other diseases have increased as the situation deteriorates and humanitarian agencies struggle to respond to the needs of the displaced.

When the displacement crisis worsened in North Kivu in 2007, the UN refugee agency sent emergency teams to the area and set up operations in several camps for internally displaced people (IDPs). Assistance efforts have also included registering displaced people and distributing non-food aid. UNHCR carries out protection monitoring to identify human rights abuses and other problems faced by IDPs in North and South Kivu.

Displaced in North Kivu: A Life on the Run

Our Sister, Our Mother - 2013 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award Laureate

The 2013 winner of UNHCR`s Nansen Refugee Award is Sister Angelique Namaika, who works in the remote north east region of Democratic Republic of the Congo with survivors of displacement and abuse by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). She has helped over 2000 displaced women and girls who have suffered the most awful kidnapping and abuse, to pick up the pieces of their lives and become re-accepted by their communities.

Uganda: New Camp, New Arrivals

Recent fighting in eastern Congo has seen thousands of civilians flee to a new camp, Bubukwanga, in neighboring Uganda.

DR Congo: Tears of Rape

Eastern DRC remains one of the most dangerous places in Africa, particularly for women.